I live in the US in Minnesota. It is famous for being the icebox of the country! I am from Saint Paul, the State Capitol, but I live in a rural area about 45 minutes west of Minneapolis, which is famous for being the most conservative congressional distract in the state. Kind of hard to take for a St. Paul liberal.

I was a longtime breeder of Arabian horses and Arabian crosses. I crossed to American Saddlebred and Lipizzaner. I owned a National Champion Tobiano Pinto Saddlebred stallion, which I still own but cut in 2009. I also owned a regional Champion Arabian stallion who suffered the same fate as the ASB in 2009. Bad horse economy, too much testosterone with nothing to do! I still have one Arabian stallion, a National winning halter horse who is also a longtime dressage training endeavor.

I own 18 horses, which is a decrease from the mid-30's I had at one time. I own two Lipizzan crosses still and have a few young horses, but my population is aging along with me.

I have been involved with dressage for a long time. I owned a Purebred Arabian gelding who was trained to Grand Prix. I had the advantage in those days of having a superior trainer who was a student/protege of Dominique Barbier. When she moved to Florida I was left with a different situation and have mostly struggled with trainers, as most trainers in this area are, at the least, heavily influenced by the German method, which is not for me or my sensitive and emotive horses.:noway:

I am settling into caretaker mode with the horses and if I can lose weight and gain some strength I would enjoy some trail riding. I have a very nice park 5 minutes away by trailer with horse trails. I would like to take better advantage of it.

Anyway, I wrote a book! I could go on and on, but I'll stop.

Where I'm from is a long story - I've moved that often - but I'm currently living in Northern Ireland. Don't own a horse at the moment, but I loan an Irish Cob/Connemara (probably - the owner isn't quite sure!) three or four days per week. 15.2 hh and a lovely shiny black. He's 8 and only knows about as much as a 4-year-old because the owner just bought him for decoration. If they were willing to sell him, I'd happily make him mine!

I'm not competetive by nature. I understand that dressage/flatwork schooling is important for any horse, and will do small jumps so I can pop a log in the forest, but I'd rather be out on the trail!

For the last year and a half, I've ridden treeless, and am loving the close contact. Used to drive as well, but fell out with the owner of those horses because of his rather dubious ideas about horsemanship. The picture in my ticker is from when I briefly had a job driving a carriage in the grounds of a stately home...

Yes, unfortunately driving and competing in other disciplines, especially dressage, don't really go well together, because the ways they move under saddle and in harness are so different!

My name is Dawn and I live in northern Delaware which is on the east coast between New York City and Washington, DC. I have an X race horse, TB. I rescued him as a 5.5 yr old and now he is 14. I rehabbed and retrained him for pleasure and trails using clicker training and positive reinforcement.

The last 3 yrs I have been learning about Classical, VERY basic dressage, in-hand and riding, to develop his body. April 1st we are moving back to 5,000 acres of rolling green hills, paths in the woods and paths cut in hay fields! All 4 minutes from my house.

I am a professional performance barefoot trimmer on sabbatical to learn body work. I hope to share both loves with future clients. I love helping owners have healthy, happy horses. Most of my clients were middle age women enjoying their best friend, but I did teach one young mom to trim and she is training with Phillip Dutton, eventing, on her two fancy warmblood mares.

I began riding at 7 and this year I will be 62. I love Paper Chases and hope to go on the first one on Good Friday. I would love to learn about harness and take baby steps towards driving. Those paths I mentioned are mostly set up for driving!

Dawn

I am from Norway Maine my name is Heather, I have been riding horses since I was 5 years old. I now train and ride my friends horses as I am in the process of buying my very first two horses to enjoy. I am in training for dressage and show jumping as I was in a severe car accident in 2011 and was unable to walk for 1yr and had to relearn how to walk after that. So the weight needs to come off that I have gained from all this not being able to move... I am looking into purchasing a Gypsy Vanner and Friesian , I normally have been in the saddle of Quarter Horses, Off the track STB and TB. So going to the more eye turning breeds will be a HUGE new for me . Well hope to get to know you all a little better!

I live in southern Arkansas, in a little town called Camden. We're the town where history lives, and that's about the only thing that does.

I currently own two horses, and care for my BMF's (Best Male Friend) horse. Lady is a 16.3 hh 1,200 lb APHA mare, 13 y/o. Fancy is a unpapered QH mare 8 y/o, 15.2 hh and about 1,000 lbs. and then Houdini is a AQHA gelding 7 y/o, about 16.1 - 16.2 hh, 1,150 - 1,200 lbs. The two mares are mine, and the gelding is my BMF's horse.

I ride western, but have had some english lessons. Wish I could get some again, but that really isn't popular around here, but I love what it does for my riding ability.

Okapi42, where in Norn Iron are you? I moved back to England last year after being stationed over there for a few years and I miss it like mad. I lived out in the Dromara hills originally, then moved to Lisburn. If I win the lottery I'm moving to somewhere between Castlewellan and Newcastle!

I'm in West Yorkshire and have 2 of my own, my mum has a 'Gypsy vanner' cob who actually came from the gypsies and we share a little companion pony as we rent a little yard just for ours.

Mine are Hera - 11yr old 15hh anglo arab x, we do trec and low level endurance with occasional xc/dressage schooling. Sooti - 16yr old 15hh welsh cob x, she is semi-retired because I don't have time for two and she doesn't have a sharer at the moment, but she is a happy hacker and gets to do occasional pleasure rides.

The whole herd is barefoot and kept on a paddock paradise system, the three who are ridden have treeless English style saddles (SBS) and mine flip between bitted and bitless depending on what we're doing although mum prefers to use a bit.

Midland, Michigan; Egyptian Arabian horses, currently down to 13; ride western a little, prefer a dressage deep-seat saddle ( Passier), riding in endurance and competitive trail as well as pleasure trail riding, showed in native costume and made custom Bedouin-style native costumes for horse and rider, from the tree up.

I'm From Wisconsin. I own a beautiful paint mare. We do trail riding, we have been to a lot of places and different states. When we trail ride it is not a slow and easy ride. Most places we go have a lot of hills and we ride for long hours. I do enjoy see all that nature has to offer.

So happy I found this group! I'm Terri, a 57 year old woman at the beginning stages of reclaiming her dream! I've just started riding again, in the arena to start, but have the vision of bringing horses back into my life full time in the next year!

I live in north of San Francisco by about 40 minutes at "The Gateway to Wine Country" aka Petaluma, California. We are famous for Eggs, White Leghorn Chickens and Dairy! Ever hear of "Clo the Cow" and Clover Stornetta? That's us! Every year in April we celebrate our heritage by flooding downtown with the "Butter and Eggs Day" Parade, and average about 40,000 people that begin lining the streets in the early morning hours for the noon start. We're also a city separated by a river, so we have the East Side ("newbies") and West Side (peppered with Victorians). Petaluma was established in 1858 and we are in the process of getting not one but two Big Box Malls. Traffic -- whoohoooo!

I've been a horse nut since I was a kid, and had my own horses in my late teens til early 20s. Up until a couple of weeks ago I hadn't been on a horse in over 20 years, but it refueled my passion, rekindled my joy and reignited my dreams! I'm currently reading "The Smart Woman's Guide to Midlife Horses" and am loving it! Beginning to put into practice the exercises, since I have an old back injury that has made exercise challenging (at best). That said -- Ain't NOTHING gonna slow me down!! I've got to keep on movin'! Dreams are calling and I am listening with my whole heart!!
:flowerforyou:

I live in Jones, OK (USA). Have never been out of this country and I am so happy to see members from other countries here! Very exciting, almost like getting a new pen pal. I grew up riding Western and still do but I am currently learning to ride English and it is a lot more work! We currently own 8 horses. I have a Warmblood that we purchased in April of 2012 (my profile picture). I am taking my lessons (hunter/dressage) on this big guy. The horse in the banner picture is a TB. We have been working English with him as well, but he is not fully trained like the gray. We also have 2 Applasoosas, another TB, and 3 Quarter Horses. We run barrels with the two QH an one of the Apps. Have to make money running barrels in order to pay for the English. Anyway, that is where we hale from and our history. I am so glad you joined and I love your picture! Welcome!

Scotland.
Have a young Piebald Cob and Dartmoor Hill Pony. Enjoy doing ground work with them,
It's lovely to find this group, losing weight and being fitter can only help our passion! :-)

Illinois!

I'm from the Arkansas- Oklahoma border and I live on a Buelingo cattle farm (the cows that look like oreo cookies!). I train/ show quarter horses in all around (showmanship, hunt seat, horsemanship, and pleasure). I've been in the saddle practically since I was born and I was raised with my current horse, a palomino Quarter Horse, as his dam is my father's old mare and his sire is our stud.